The XX and Friendly Fires

If anyone needed proof that Britain’s The XX are a full-blown phenomenon at this point, they’d do well to have attended their debut performance in Montreal, opening for labelmates and fellow Britishers Friendly Fires. Playing the opening slot of a pricey, early-evening midweek show, the very young group packed the not-inconsiderably sized Le National with seeming ease – complaints of scalpers hiking tickets into the $50 range cropped up in the usual places. Their already iconic logo / album cover graced a few t-shirts. All this for a band almost no one (outside of Rough Trade’s surely giddy staff) knew existed six months ago.

What is to account for their quick ascension? xx, their debut, distills two decades of seemingly disparate influences – from Young Marble Giants to contemporary R&B – along with the saddest swath of reverb this side of Turn On the Bright Lights, and holds it all together with the duet vocals of guitarist Romy Madley Croft and bassist Oliver Sim, who almost never harmonize, instead hovering intimately around the same vocal lines, lazily intoning the whispery nothings of teenagers in lust. It’s a combination that sounds like annoying pastiche on paper, but the results are distinctive and oddly affecting – and weirdly assured.

It bears mentioning that only a couple of weeks ago, The XX lost a member (founding keyboardist Baria Qureshi), and decided to carry on as a three-piece. Anyone expecting awkwardness as a result of that departure was thankfully mistaken – remaining synth whiz NAME gracefully pulled off double duties on most tracks, often playing one of their trademark skeletal drum machine rhythms on one hand and sampled, reverbed guitar sounds on the other. With the barest of stage accoutrements (just two lit-up black boxes graced with, of course, the ever-present X’s), the trio played almost the entirety of their debut, mostly faithfully. The principal difference between live and recorded XX is the bass sounds – not unlike Fever Ray’s live show, the bass frequencies were mixed to almost punishing levels, making for a surprisingly bracing experience at times. Beyond that, and a few musical embellishments here and there, their live show is not a radically different prospect from their album – even Croft and Sim’s distinctive voices are identical in a live environ. Just seeing these nascent idols in action was most likely enough for the rapt crowd.

After the group left the stage to the sounds of their Florence and the Machine remix, the crowd thinned out a little, confirming suspicions that this was, on paper at least, The XX’s evening. Truth be told, Friendly Fires’ recorded material has never been my cup of tea – I like a little non-frothy sentiment to go with my beats. That being said, the group puts on an undeniably killer live show. Six-strong with their two horn players onstage, the group, led by bellowy singer ed Macfarlane, were remarkably tight, assured and exuberant. Macfarlane, in particular, bears special mention not only for his strong (if slightly character-free) vocals, but also for sheer rump-shaking prowess. That kind of swagger just doesn’t happen on this side of the pond very often. Despite my misgivings about their blandly celebratory lyrics (I’m looking at you, “Jump Into the Pool”) and slightly anonymous tunes, the ‘Fires worked every cut like it was a chart-topper, not letting up their intensity for a moment, and constantly mixing up their rhythm section with an added drum here or an instrument swap there. Special notice goes to guitarist Edd Gibson, whose lines were consistently vibrant and creative.

So in the battle of the shaken but confident wunderkinds and the high-performing underachievers, who came out stronger? Predictably, the headliners got more bodies in motion – danceability is certainly not The XX’s stock in trade – but I suspect the younger group had won the battle for hearts and minds just by showing up. They’re here, they’re sad, and they’re very shortly going to be completely omnipresent. All hail our epically coiffed leaders.

-Simon Howell
(You can catch Simon as part of the Sound On Sight crew on Mondays from 8 to 10 pm, and also flying solo during Sucker Blues, from 7 to 8 pm on Thursdays)